Ahmad likewise cited it through Ibn Isḥāq, who said, “Nāfiʿ narrated it to me in nearly the same wording, but as a mawqūf report.” In that version Nāfiʿ adds: “Were I to tell you that he traced it back to the Messenger of Allah ﷺ, I would hope I would not be lying.” Its chain is good.

This shows that the hesitation over whether the report is marfūʿ or mawqūf originates with Nāfiʿ himself; yet at the same time he inclined to regard it as marfūʿ to the Prophet ﷺ. For that reason some of his narrators asserted it as marfūʿ, as in the first narration transmitted by Ḥafṣ ibn Maysarah from Mūsā ibn ʿUqbah.

Tawbah al-ʿAnbarī likewise reported it from Nāfiʿ categorically as marfūʿ, with the wording: “When one of you prays, let him fasten an izār (waist-wrapper) and cast a cloak over himself.”

Al-Ṭaḥāwī and al-Bayhaqī recorded this through ʿUbayd Allāh ibn Muʿādh, who said, “My father narrated to me; Shuʿbah narrated to me from Tawbah al-ʿAnbarī,” and he related it. This isnād is authentic according to the criteria of the Two Shaykhs.

If the worshipper owns only a single garment, he must still use it to cover his shoulders by crossing its two ends, because the Prophet ﷺ said: “If one of you prays in a single garment, let him cross its two ends over his shoulders.” In another wording: “None of you should pray in a single garment if nothing of it rests on his shoulders.” This ḥadīth is from Abū Hurayrah (may Allah be pleased with him) and reaches us through three separate routes.